26 U.S. Code § 4371 - Imposition of tax

There is hereby imposed, on each policy of insurance, indemnity bond, annuity contract, or policy of reinsurance issued by any foreign insurer or reinsurer, a tax at the following rates:

(1) Casualty insurance and indemnity bonds

4 cents on each dollar, or fractional part thereof, of the premium paid on the policy of casualty insurance or the indemnity bond, if issued to or for, or in the name of, an insured as defined in section 4372(d);

(2) Life insurance, sickness, and accident policies, and annuity contracts

1 cent on each dollar, or fractional part thereof, of the premium paid on the policy of life, sickness, or accident insurance, or annuity contract; and

(3) Reinsurance

1 cent on each dollar, or fractional part thereof, of the premium paid on the policy of reinsurance covering any of the contracts taxable under paragraph (1) or (2).

For information regarding constitutionality of section 4371 of act Aug. 16, 1954, see Congressional Research Service, The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation, Appendix 1, Acts of Congress Held Unconstitutional in Whole or in Part by the Supreme Court of the United States.

1958—Pub. L. 85–859 substituted “is hereby imposed, on each policy of insurance, indemnity bond, annuity contract, or policy of reinsurance issued by any foreign insurer or reinsurer, a tax” for “shall be imposed a tax on each policy of insurance, indemnity bond, annuity contract, or policy of reinsurance issued by any foreign insurer or reinsurer”.

Amendment by act Mar. 13, 1956, applicable only to taxable years beginning after Dec. 31, 1954, see section 6 of act Mar. 13, 1956, set out as a note under section 316 of this title.

Written determinations for this section

These documents, sometimes referred to as "Private Letter Rulings", are taken from the IRS Written Determinations page; the IRS also publishes a fuller explanation of what they are and what they mean. The collection is updated (at our end) daily. It appears that the IRS updates their listing every Friday.

Note that the IRS often titles documents in a very plain-vanilla, duplicative way. Do not assume that identically-titled documents are the same, or that a later document supersedes another with the same title. That is unlikely to be the case.

Release dates appear exactly as we get them from the IRS. Some are clearly wrong, but we have made no attempt to correct them, as we have no way guess correctly in all cases, and do not wish to add to the confusion.